The Argentine actor, writer, stage director and film-maker Federico León has assembled three trios, each comprising two women and a man, of 70, 30 and 10 years old, nine actors, in other words, and a dog. The children and the thirty-year-olds re-enact the seventy-year-olds’ childhood and youth.

In Japanese, suteru means “rid oneself of” and tabi “journey” or “occasion”. Suteru Tabi is the moving story of a young man who is trying to cope with the death of his father. Out of the loss and mourning he becomes stronger and succeeds in taking responsibility for his life. With just four chairs and a handful of props, the Japanese author and director Shiro Maeda creates a performance rich in imagery that combines poetry with humour, magic and realism.

Two Brussels-based collectives – the Dutch-speaking Tristero and the French-speaking Transquinquennal – have decided to work together. Both partners in this exceptional coalition have a reputation for seeking out unknown and/or contemporary pieces. In Coalition they take a closer look at events which need not have happened and might not have happened, but which did happen: from the most banal traffic accidents to major disasters involving thousands of deaths. In other words: things could have turned out differently.

Over the last few years, the Mechelen collective Abattoir Fermé has built up a strong repertoire that swings between dream, hallucination and nightmare. Snuff (Index 1) is the company’s first production for the large stage. It premieres at the Kaaitheater.

In the 80s Thomas Bernhard wrote three novels on the arts: Der Untergeher, about the pianist Glenn Gould, Alte Meister, about painting, and Holzfällen, about theatre. Twelve years ago STAN adapted the second part of this trilogy. Damiaan De Schrijver and Jolente De Keersmaeker have now created an adaptation of part three.

Apart from the ‘official’ gospels there is also a gospel according to Judas. In it Judas relates his version of the facts: he did not ‘betray’ Jesus. In the Judas Passion by the composer Dominique Pauwels and the writer Pieter de Buysser Judas tells his story from a modern perspective. An apology of the weakness of human nature.

It was while working on De versie Claus that the writer Mark Schaevers and theatre-maker Josse De Pauw were caught unawares by the news that Hugo Claus had chosen to have his life brought to an end. Their ‘Claus version’, intended as a tribute, now became a memorial for the master of Flemish literature.

Apart from two permanent members, Natali Broods, Robby Cleiren, Tine Embrechts and Nico Sturm will join in the creation and performance of STUKKEN which will have its opening performance in Kaaitheater. The material of the performance is provided by the writers Saskia De Coster, Patricia De Martelaere, Tom Lanoye, Bart Moeyaert, Yves Petry and Annelies Verbeke.

A lone performer takes to the stage, explaining that the show we’re watching is somehow different tonight. The atmosphere is different, his entrance was off, the lights are wrong, the tone is all wrong. Spectacular is about the trembling edge of laughter, possibility and invention. Simple, absurd and comical, this provocative new show from Forced Entertainment promises to add to their already remarkable body of work.

Three actors perform simple ritualistic acts in silence using elementary materials: water, earth, milk and honey. A text is projected onto the back wall of the stage; it is an analysis of the consumer society, alternately accusatory and self-critical. The Madrid based Argentinian Rodrigo Garcia makes highly physical and provocative theatre. This piece is more contemplative, a transcript of his baroque language.

In late November, Rodrigo Garcia was awarded the Prix Europe Nouvelles Réalités Théâtrales. There were five winners, including Guy Cassiers.

Stef Lernous, director with Abattoir Fermé, and the young composer Daan Janssens have been working with two young singers and two musicians on a study project based on the work of H.P. Lovecraft. The atmosphere is one of chaos, gloom, madness and ancient gods. Lovecraft is one of the ‘grandparents’ of modern science fiction and horror. His writing presented the prospect of a horrible world for mankind.

In his new piece, called THRILLER..., Diederik Peeters examines the dramatic and narrative qualities of space and the extent to which the context of an action influences our perception of it. What happens when the action remains the same but the environment changes? When the environment starts to manipulate us and steers the story?

Philosophy and art run away with each other in this piece by Kuno Bakker and Jorn Heijdenrijk. They drew their inspiration from the frivolous and controversial ideas on freedom and happiness propagated by the 18th-century philosopher Julien Offray de la Mettrie. Mannetje met de lange lul (Little Chap with the Big Prick) is about freedom of thought and action, both on and off stage.

Superamas opened the Kaaitheater season with their fantastic BIG 3 (Happy/End). Their theatre is both light and complex. Full of delights and seduction, with an underlying critique of the media, society and politics. Empire (Art & Politics) criticises ‘the State’, how it is established, how it works and makes propaganda, uses violence, patronises terrorism, satisfies its hunger for power, handles foreigners, reproduces itself and, ultimately, dies.

Sight is the sense that dying people tend to lose first is a free-associating monologue that tumbles from topic to topic as it outlines a broad picture of the world. Comical in its naiveté and preposterously encyclopaedic in its ambitions, it explores the absurdities and horror of the human brain, which wants to understand everything.

Frank Vercruyssen and Tine Embrechts are working on a play based a.o. on the short story Plumes de bécasse by the Greek writer Thanassis Valtinos. This novella tells the story of a married couple. She wants a divorce, but he does not. She is quite insufferable, he possibly even more so. The title (stay / away) perfectly captures the atmosphere of their conversations, which is anything but peaceful!

Since the opening performance at our Comedy Festival in 2004, Tristero has presented no less than five sold-out series of Abigail’s Party, a bittersweet comedy by the filmmaker and playwright Mike Leigh. In Living, the characters from Abigail’s Party meet again. However, whereas in Abigail’s Party they are narrow-minded conformists who can never be themselves, in Living they are given the opportunity to be just this. What is the story behind their façades? For the first time Tristero is creating a performance without words.

WORKING TITLE FESTIVAL - A dark, disturbing black comedy musical by Stephen Sondheim about the presidential assassinations in the US and the reverse side of the American Dream. It was staged when Bush Sr. went to war in Iraq and was denounced as unpatriotic.

LEX resembles a feverish dream or an oracle. The person speaking is a man whose being we cannot immediately identify. Is this God in his true guise? A god born of words and images? Or is this man an Idol? A divine figure? Verhelst’s inspiration was Alexander the Great. The script contains passages from Dante’s Divine Comedy, Joyce’s Ulysses and the collected works of Shakespeare.

In The Ballad of Ricky and Ronny – a pop opera, Anna Sophia Bonnema and Hans Petter Dahl continue their quest for the ideal combination of stage play and concert. The show premiered in the Kaaistudio’s, in October 2007, and was nominated for the Theaterfestival 08.

Triptiek van de macht - part 3.Atropa. De wraak van de vrede centres on the Trojan War. The Greek general Agamemnon is confronted with the victims of his decisions. This involved Tom Lanoye rewriting several Greek tragedies. Here, as in his other plays, Guy Cassiers is a subtle master at combining the written word, image and acting.